Shadowing Practice: 7 ideas that will make you unstoppable - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Here are seven things that will make you unstoppable.
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Number one, change your inputs to change your outputs.
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So a lot of us go throughout life completely unaware of why we do certain things, or why we think certain thoughts, or why we say things the way that we say them,
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with the tone in which we say them.
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Or we can't figure out why we're tired all the time.
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Our behavior is like a mystery to us, something completely out of our control,
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like the weather, or some foreign government EMPing you while you're in a plane on the way to Europe.
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But maybe things aren't so complicated or mysterious.
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Maybe we're putting out exactly what we're putting in.
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Your mother and your grandmother have said it since you were a child.
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You are what you eat.
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But it goes way deeper than that.
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You are what you eat, what you smell, what you see.
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Your senses are soaking in inputs all the time.
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99.9% of which are synthesized and understood and processed by your subconscious.
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And what that means is that you're not conscious of it.
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You're not consciously aware of the fact that all these calculations are being made.
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Your conscious mind is super efficient at no longer noticing the filth in your bedroom, the moldy spaghetti behind your monitor.
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But your subconscious smells that every second of the day.
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What you are inputting into your subconscious is information that is making you feel a certain way, that's making you behave a certain way.
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Become conscious of what you are feeding your subconscious on a regular basis.
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When was the last time you saw a tree?
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Number two, you have to stretch in order to grow.
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So in order to be successful in life, you probably need to have habits that benefit you.
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So maybe you don't have those.
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And maybe you want to be a person that has those.
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But I think there are two main ways that people fail to implement beneficial habits for the long term.
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The first way is they think it's going to be too easy.
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They think that habit change is this really fun thing.
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People want to go to the gym every day, so they shop for new supplements and new workout clothes,
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and they get all infatuated with this idea of being this healthy, gym-going person.
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And then obviously, you know the story, you show up to the gym, and it's way harder than you thought it was gonna be.
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It feels nothing like thinking about going to the gym.
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Lifting weights is hard.
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You have to sweat.
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And then you feel like, heh, this isn't fun, so you stop doing it.
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The second way I see people fail is they think it's going to be really hard and miserable treacherous, not worth it.
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Maybe they've tried a bunch of times and they've burned away their naivety and they say things like, I would start going to the gym,
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but I just don't feel like putting in all of that effort.
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It's not worth it.
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You probably can identify that there are truths and falsehoods to both of these approaches.
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Yeah, it's not easy to implement a new habit.
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Yes, it's not going to feel natural and it's going to be kind of unpleasant for a lot of it,
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but also it is worth it because every single time you implement something
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that is genuinely good for you when you can manage to have these small wins
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when you actually show up to the gym you put in a workout it is difficult
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but when you leave the gym
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and you're sitting there on your couch after a great workout
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chugging back a protein shake you get this quiet feeling of
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victory like damn a lot of bad things could happen to me today
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but at least I went to the gym and
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that might seem subtle But if you compound that feeling over a very long time, you feel like a completely different person.
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You have inputted into your mind repeatedly that you have won.
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You've done something worthwhile.
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You're growing.
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You're getting stronger.
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And when you have that narrative in your subconscious, the way you walk changes.
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The way you make eye contact with people changes.
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The way you treat yourself changes.
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That's the power of burning away this lesser self.
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Of voluntarily subjecting yourself to pain.
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Because what that tells yourself is that I'm willing to go through this to better myself because I'm worth it.
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I'm shouldering so much suffering so that I can be the best version of myself.
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So that I can be stronger.
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So I can treat myself with respect.
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And that narrative, treating yourself that way, completely transforms your existence.
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That is absolutely worth it.
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And suffering viewed in this proper context is a wonderful thing.
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It is joyous even.
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So remember that.
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Yes, it's painful, but hell yeah, it's worth it.
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Number three, guard your eyes.
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The more we look at something, the more we are telling our brain that this thing is valuable.
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This thing is important to us.
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Even when looking at something as a reflex, you hear a pen drop next to you in your home alone, you're gonna look at that right away because you value that information.
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It could be a predator.
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It could be somebody climbing through your windows ready to stab your dog.
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I find that the more I scroll Instagram, the more I scan my environment kind of aimlessly looking for something to sort of pique my interest.
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You know, there's this sort of this aimlessness to my field of vision where I'm just kind of looking for things to stimulate me, to give me a little brain tickle.
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If you really need to focus on something in particular, try looking at it for 30 seconds.
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Try controlling your eyes, guarding it from distraction, and literally just looking at the thing that you're supposed to do and not directing your vision anywhere else but that thing.
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And when your eyes are focusing on something, your entire being tends to focus on it.
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So you don't have to overthink things.
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Just look at what you're supposed to do.
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Don't allow yourself to look anywhere else.
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Treat your eyes like a laser beam.
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Have a reason to be looking where you're looking.
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Number four, figure it out.
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So if you want to get into powerlifting really badly and you've never lifted a dumbbell, a barbell in your life,
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then obviously a really dumb thing to do would be to go onto YouTube
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and watch a bunch of videos of people who can powerlift or deadlift 600 pounds or more,
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you watch all these videos of these strong dudes showing you the best possible way to deadlift 600 pounds.
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Like that's such a waste of time.
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If you've never deadlifted a thing in your life, then watching any of these videos is the biggest waste of your time you could possibly imagine.
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Go to the gym first and then when you're at the gym,
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take out your phone and watch a video on basic form so that you don't hurt yourself while you're deadlifting, but deadlift.
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Take all the energy you would use to try to figure out the perfect way to do something
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and use it to do the thing repeatedly and terribly so
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that you can get good at it faster than you ever would by watching videos about it.
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There is no amount of videos you could watch.
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You could watch 7,000 powerlifting videos.
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You would not be able to deadlift one more pound.
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Maybe like two more pounds.
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But it ain't gonna be 600.
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Most people's problem nowadays is they forgot what it feels like to just figure things out.
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Start doing the thing, obviously don't hurt yourself, don't be dumb, but figure it out.
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Oh no, Joey's telling me to start doing like free solo climbing on the side of a cliff
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and not watch a video or get a mentor.
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No, I'm not.
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Figure it out.
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A big thank you to Skillshare for sponsoring this video.
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So if you're interested in joining me in becoming big brained and highly skilled by taking advantage of this super valuable resource,
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So once again, click the link in the description below
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or scan the QR code to get a one month free trial of Skillshare.
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And thanks again to Skillshare for sponsoring this video.
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Number five, use leverage.
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This sounds like the most technical one.
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It sounds like, I don't know what it sounds like.
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It sounds stupid, that's what it sounds like.
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Not all productive things are created equal.
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There are things that you really should be doing, or maybe there's literally one thing that you always avoid doing
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and it is by far the most important thing you could possibly do.
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In my own life that's making videos.
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From a strictly monetary ROI perspective,
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making videos from start to finish and hitting upload is by far the best use of my time I can possibly do.
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So whenever I I am hanging out
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and you know I'm painting my windowsill black in my theater room you know that is a productive thing.
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I'm painting my windowsill.
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I'm doing something.
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But when I have a deadline for a sponsor
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and I need to make a video and I have something on my mind
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and I should just sit here and talk about it.
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What the hell am I doing painting a window?
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So many things in life are like that where yeah it's technically productive but it's not the thing.
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It's not the thing that is on your mind, that's plaguing your existence, that is making you feel like you need to escape.
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Everybody has that thing.
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You need to find a way to do whatever that thing is as often as possible, for as long as possible, with as much intensity as possible.
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There's a dirty joke in here somewhere.
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And on the exact same wavelength, there's something that is the absolute worst use of your time that you could possibly do.
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It has the absolute worst ROI out of any activity that you do on a daily or weekly basis.
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If you thought about it for even three seconds, there's no reason to do it.
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You need to find a way to do that thing as little as possible.
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So that's what it looks like to maximize leverage.
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Make that one thing that you need to do as enjoyable as possible, as frictionless as possible.
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Make it just so easy to do all the time for a long period of time.
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Spend money and time to help you make that thing as good as possible.
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Increase the quality and enjoyability of that most important thing.
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And on the exact same token, make doing the worst thing that you can possibly do as unenjoyable as possible.
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Straight out miserable, right?
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Make it inconvenient.
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Make it as hard as possible to do what you don't want to do
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and as easy as possible to do the best thing you could possibly do.
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Number six, stop running from yourself.
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Desiring to be a better version of yourself should not be confused with wanting to run away from who you are.
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That might sound cheesy, but believe me, I've been there.
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I've wanted to just not be who I am and instead of just resenting my situation,
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I confused it with resenting myself for punishing myself for failing
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or thinking it's somehow Unacceptable to be in the state
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that I'm in or to have the lifestyle that I have
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And it's very important to realize that once you start attacking yourself instead of just being proactive about
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Leaving your undesirable situation as soon as you start attacking yourself all progress stops
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Because even if you manage to get yourself out of your situation, you're not gonna be happy It's not going to be good enough.
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You will feel like you always need to justify your own existence.
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The narrative inside your head when you don't like yourself very much is Okay, I don't like who I am and where I am So
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if I just do this thing and get this thing then
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that will make me worth something that will justify my existence
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But there's no way to justify your own existence through achievement
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or accumulating objects There's no point to any of this
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if you don't believe that you have inherent dignity And
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if you don't treat yourself like you have inherent dignity from the get-go There's nothing you can do to earn
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that so look at yourself in the mirror take a deep breath
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and say I got you buddy I might not like every single thing about how I behave
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or what I've done But I accept it as the truth.
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I accept it as what has happened.
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It is what it is.
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This is the reality Now where do we go from here?
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Number seven, do what you want.
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And I really mean this in the deepest possible sense.
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Do whatever the hell you want.
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Now before you go and tear open a package of Tim Tams and start gobbling your life away, hear me out.
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I think we only ever do what we want.
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We only ever do what we think we want to do in any given moment.
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Even when we do something that we don't want to do, something that we regret doing, something that we're morally opposed to doing,
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I feel like 99% of the time it's only because it's what we thought we wanted to do at the time, or there's something in it that we want.
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Maybe we don't want all of it, but there's something there.
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There was something about it that we thought we wanted at the time.
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It turns out we didn't want it, but we thought we did.
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And I think this is important to consider.
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Try to ask yourself on the deepest possible level, what do you want?
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What kind of life do you want to live?
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What kind of relationships do you want to have?
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What do you ideally want to do on a day-to-day basis?
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And why do you want those things?
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How would it make you feel to live this way?
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And now contrast that with what you currently do.
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Think about all the things that you don't like that you do.
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and ask yourself, what in these things do I actually want?
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And a lot of the time when we have things that we do that are bad for us, there's still something in it that we want.
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And it's not the thing itself that we want.
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It's usually a feeling it gives us.
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Try to figure out what that feeling is.
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And it's probably a feeling that everybody wants, right?
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It's just the thing itself or the activity or the behavior isn't the best possible way to achieve that feeling.
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Once you start going through this process, a lot of the time you realize that even doing what you don't want to do, but you think it's something that you want to do,
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but you shouldn't do, it's like even that thing isn't doing what you want in the best possible way.
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Like obviously the easiest possible example is, you know, going on YouTube, scrolling through YouTube shorts or whatever, right?
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If you stop to ask yourself, What about this do I actually like?
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What do I want here?
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Why do I do this?
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What feeling am I looking for?
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What do I have to gain from this that I can take with me into life?
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Like, will I ever feel satisfied?
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Like, man, I have arrived.
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That was so worth it.
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I feel so good now.
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It's like, probably not.
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Don't you want to feel that way?
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Isn't that what you want?
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Probably.
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And a lot of the time these like dopamine traps things
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that promise you something and promise you something
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and promise you something There is no feeling of ah I have arrived that was so worth it.
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I feel so good about myself now No, it's always some fake promise find what that thing is promising
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and then find the best possible way to give yourself that feeling
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and a lot of time what you'll find is giving yourself
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the best possible feeling usually aligns with your moral compass it usually makes your life better
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and usually you know everything about it is just better than doing the worst thing we always think
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that by giving up the worst thing
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our life is going to be less enjoyable we're giving up something that's actually good
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but it's like that thing actually isn't
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that good you know the best possible way to get the feeling
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that you want in life
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and to be the person you want to be in life is by being the person you want to be in life.
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Unless you actually think about these things and reflect on the feelings all these activities give you, you'll be blind to it.
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You'll fall for false promises.
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Does that make sense?
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If that doesn't make sense, comment below.
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Say, Joey, that makes no sense.
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The bottom line is you are a living, breathing human being.
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You affect the world around you.
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You can decide right now to pick up the glass that's closest to you
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and throw it against the wall and shatter it.
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You can do that.
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You can move through space and time and affect the world around you.
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You can affect people around you.
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But most importantly, you can affect your life.
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You can affect the habits you have.
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You can change your life and you can live the life that you want to live, truly want to live.
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And it will be what you want.
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Like it's the most basic possible thing and it's exciting.
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So help yourself, give yourself what you want and not just moment to moment, right?
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Because that's short-sighted, but what your soul is screaming for.
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And I hope that by doing so, you will find more peace and fulfillment and enjoyment every single day of your life.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “7 ideas that will make you unstoppable”. This video has 264 sentences and 3263 words to shadow. The speech runs for 17:37. The speaker talks fast, about 185 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| deadlift noun | /ˈdɛdlɪft/ | A weight training exercise where one lifts a loaded barbell off the ground from a stabilized bent-over position. |
| subconscious adjective | /sʌbˈkɑn.ʃəs/ | Occuring in the part of our mind that we are not normally aware of. |
| implement verb | /ˈɪmpləmənt/ | To bring about; to put into practice; to carry out. |
| workout noun | /ˈwɝk.aʊ̯t/ | An exercise session; a period of physical exercise. |
| sponsor noun | /ˈspɒn.səː/ | A person or organization with some sort of responsibility for another person or organization, especially where the responsibility has a religious, legal, or… |
| scan verb | /skæn/ | To examine sequentially, carefully, or critically; to scrutinize; to behold closely. |
| justify verb | /ˈd͡ʒʌstɪfaɪ/ | To provide an acceptable explanation for. |
| conscious adjective | /ˈkɑn.ʃəs/ | Alert, awake; with one's mental faculties active. |
| powerlifting noun | [ˈpawə(ɹ)ˌlɪftɪŋ] | A strength sport, consisting of three events: the squat, the bench press, and the deadlift. The maximum weight lifted in each event is totalled for a final… |
| resent verb | /ɹiˈzɛnt/ | To feel resentment over; to consider as an affront. |
| windowsill noun | /ˈwɪndoʊˌsɪl/ | The horizontal member protruding from the base of a window frame. |
| inherent adjective | /ɪnˈhɪəɹənt/ | Naturally as part or consequence of something. |
| scroll noun | /skɹoʊl/ | A roll of paper or parchment; a writing formed into a roll. |
| leverage noun | /ˈlɛv.(ə.)ɹɪd͡ʒ/ | A force compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot. |
| enjoyable adjective | /ɛnˈd͡ʒɔɪ.ə.bl̩/ | Pleasant, capable of giving pleasure. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. |
| burn away verb | To remove or be removed by burning. |
| give up verb | To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone). |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. |
| put out verb | To blind (eyes). |
| run away from verb | To avoid or shirk a problem or consequences; to rush to back away from or disclaim responsibility for something. |
| take out verb | To remove. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- When was the last time you saw a tree?
- What kind of life do you want to live?
- What kind of relationships do you want to have?
- Don't you want to feel that way?
- Isn't that what you want?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have said · they've tried · have inputted |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are synthesized · being made · are created |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who can · people who use |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 78 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: synthesize /ˈsɪnθəsaɪz/, wavelength /ˈweɪvˌlɛŋ(k)θ/, worthwhile /ˌwɜː(ɹ)θˈwaɪl/, grandmother /ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌmʌðɚ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: subconscious /sʌbˈkɑn.ʃəs/, conscious /ˈkɑn.ʃəs/, shatter /ˈʃætɚ/, entrepreneurship /ˌɑn.tɹə.pɹəˈnɝ.ʃɪp/, calculation /ˌkælkjuˈleɪʃn̩/
- Long words — get the stress right: powerlifting [ˈpawə(ɹ)ˌlɪftɪŋ], miserable /ˈmɪz(ə)ɹəbəl/, accumulate /əˈkjuːmjʊˌleɪt/, inconvenient /ˌɪn.kənˈviːni.ənt/, undesirable /ˌʌndɪˈzaɪɹəbəl/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like deadlift, subconscious, implement.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.